Passive preamp

I have a Schiit Freya + I occasionally use (well worth the $800 I spent on it) and with my class A mono's I prefer it in the active mode using the LISST  Tubes. However the passive mode is very musical also. It will be system dependent and I like having a little gain. 

Excellent idea to try the M3 as the pre going directly to my amp.  I would at least have something to compare against the passive pre. Unfortunately, I do have more than the one source (turntable and other) otherwise I would stay with the M3.  Happy to notify in this thread what my results but but it'll be a couple of weeks before I have things set up.  Cheers!

As you have more than one source and are forced to use a preamp, you need something better than that piece of Schiit preamp. With that Schiit in front of Bricasti dac you pretty much wasted your money. You’ll know what I mean when you run M3 direct. 

How does the Freya sound when using in different modes? Passive, buffered , tubes. I use mine in a second system 90+% of the time in passive mode. I actually went as far as selling a Freya+ a while back as a substitute was found and said to be superior. Used the superior unit for a couple of months, then bought another Freya+. Sold the superior unit as it was inferior to the Freya+. The Freya+ is tough to beat unless one spends sizable piles of cash. Your mileage may vary. 

One of the finest passive preamps that I've found is Khozmo Acoustics. The shunt-zfoil volume control is superb. Only limitation is 3 inputs only (which is one more than I use, so not a limitation in my case).

Very reasonably priced as well!